Bredesen, Cooper Still Waiting for Obama's Call
After Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination for secretary of health and human services yesterday, Politico was quick to name Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper as possible replacements. But overnight, our hometown heroes seem to have dropped out of consideration.
The New York Times reports the White House is focusing on governors, "who by nature of their jobs run state Medicaid programs," and mentions particularly Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas. Other possibilities: Govs. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania and Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan and former Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon, all Democrats. Um, didja know, we have a Democratic governor, too?
Even Politico seems to forgotten that Bredesen and Cooper exist. Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown is throwing names all over the place today in her story. There's Sebelius, Kitzhaber, Howard Dean, John Podesta, and even Mitt Romney--yes Mitt Romney--but no Bredesen or Cooper.
What happened? The White House knows either guy would make a really bad choice, the main reason being neither one could help the president deliver universal health care. As Daily Kos points out, "Cooper's major accomplishment in the field of health and human services was sinking the Clinton plan in 1993, precisely because he objected to employer mandates for universal coverage." (We also agree with Daily Kos, by the way, that our congressman is full of it for saying on Liberadio! the White House is secretly happy he voted against the stimulus package. But that's another story.)
As for Bredesen, please. Let's review. He's a former HMO executive who campaigned as the candidate with the business acumen to save TennCare, then killed it. More than 200,000 people--most of them categorized as uninsurable in the private sector because of pre-existing conditions or chronic illnesses--were tossed off the rolls. That's not exactly a great little item on the resume for the guy who would finally bring us universal health care.
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